hello i am soniclovenoize. because i have too much time on my hands, i waste it by reconstructing famous unreleased albums. here are some of them. enjoy.

Wednesday, January 20, 2016

The Who - Who's Lily

The Who – Who’s Lily

(soniclovenoize reconstruction)

Side A:

1.Armenia City in
The Sky

2.Mary Anne with The
Shaky Hand

3.Pictures of Lily

4.In The Hall of The
Mountain King

5.Our Love Was

6.I Can See For
Miles

Side B:

7.I Can’t Reach You

8.Silas Stingy

9.Glittering Girl

10.Tattoo

11.Relax

12.Rael (1 and 2)

Continuing my on-going series of Who albums that never were,
this is a reconstruction of the unreleased 1967 album Who’s Lily.Standing as the working title of their
follow-up to A Quick One—or Jigsaw Puzzle in my continuity—the album was
revised from a loose collection of songs into a conceptual framework that mimicked
a pirate radio broadcast and released as their seminal album The Who Sell
Out.This reconstruction attempts to
reproduce what the original incarnation of the album could have sounded like,
before the Sell Out concept.Some new
edits were created and several tracks crossfaded for continuity.The
album is again presented all in mono—as all early The Who should!—and uses the
best possible masters for each track.

As London entered 1967 and became a lot more swingin', The Who found themselves in
a rapidly changing music scene.Contemporaries Cream and The Jimi Hendrix Experience were laying the
ground for a more wild sound and The Who’s mod image was beginning to seem outdated.To keep up with their competition,
The Who returned to IBC studios in early April to cut a handful of songs for a
new single: “Glittering Girl”, “Doctor Doctor” and “Pictures of Lily”, the
later being an exquisite specimen of power pop, concerning masturbation.The song was just what The Who needed and
shot up the charts, establishing The Who as a force that once again could be reckoned with
in this upcoming year of musical change.In keeping up with these tides, the band planned to follow the single with a purely
instrumental EP and even recorded a duo of songs for it—the bass-driven
“Sodding About” and a crazed rendition of Edvard Greig’s “In The Hall of the Mountain
King” from Peer Gynt.Although the duo
of songs seemed to anticipate and embrace the forthcoming psychedelia craze, the
results were less than satisfactory and the instrumentals were set aside, the EP concept scrapped.The Who would
have to go back to what they did best: writing great pop songs and performing them with gusto.

In May the band returned to the studio to cut a slew of new
songs for their forthcoming third album, built around the previous month’s success
of “Pictures of Lily”, making the album’s provisional title Who’s Lily.Much had been learned from splitting the songwriting duties
on A Quick One, and all Who members once again contributed original
material: Daltrey offered “Early Morning: Cold Taxi”; Moon offered “Girl’s Eyes”;
Entwhistle offered “Someone’s Coming”; Pete offered what he thought was his magnum
opus, “I Can See For Miles”; and finally “Armenia City in the Sky”, a song written
by Pete’s driver Speedy Keen (of Thunderclap Newman) which fully captured the current psychedelic era.With
half an album started, The Who turned their eyes across the Atlantic for a
handful of shows in New York and a spot in the famous Montery Pop Festival,
co-headlining with The Who’s chief British competition: The Jimi Hendrix
Experience.Briefly returning home to De
Lane Lea Studios in July, The Who cut the basics for two more Who’s Lily tracks, “I
Can’t Reach You” and “Relax”.They immediately
left for a three-month tour of North America with Herman’s Hermits and
additional work on Who’s Lily would have to be done on the road, across the
ocean.

The Who's seafaring seemed to be an influence on the new
album, as Townshend unearthed a rock opera he had been composing since the
beginning of the year, concerning a soldier from the fictional country of Rael who
travels across the sea to battle the invading Chinese.In an attempt to finish Who’s Lily for its
proposed summer release, Townshend whittled his rock opera down from 30 minutes
into a 10 minute opus; it was further whittled down as much as possible for consideration as a single!“Rael” was recorded at Mirasound Studios in New York with Bob Dylan’s
keyboardist Al Kooper, but it’s 6-minute run time excluded it from a single
release and "Rael" was tossed into the batch of other album-contenders.Two more songs were recorded at Mirasound with further August recording at Columbia
Studios in Nashville for the single that “Rael” could not occupy: a balled
called “Our Love Was” and another power-pop song about masturbation, “Mary Anne
with The Shaky Hand”, the later released as a single in the US.After more work was done at Columbia Studios to complete
the unfinished tracks recorded throughout the year, as well as a September session at Goldstar in LA to complete “I Can See For Miles”, a total of ten album contenders
were to be paired with “Pictures of Lily” (and possibly it’s b-side “Doctor
Doctor” or session outtake “Glittering Girl”).This was most certainly the Who’s Lily album, but was it the best album The
Who could muster in this changing musical climate?Was it a good idea to build an album around a
straight-ahead power-pop song midst the increasingly colorful Summer of
Love?The Who gave pause to Who’s Lily
and they would have to come up with the album’s selling point.

Throughout 1967, The Who recorded various
commercial jingles, including adverts for Coke in April and Great Shakes in May.Perhaps the success of these adverts inspired
The Who to use it as a framework for a redesigned Who’s Lily.Upon returning home in October, The Who hit
the studio and cut a number of ridiculous faux commercial jingles: “Medac”, “Top
Gear”, “Heinz Baked Beans” and “Odorono”.These jingles would be interspersed throughout
the proper Who songs on their upcoming album, designed to replicate a pirate
radio broadcast.This sudden burst of
inspiration fueled the band to pump out several more proper Who songs to trump
the weaker material recorded earlier in the year: Entwhistle’s creepy character-study
“Silas Stingy”; Townshend’s paced classic “Tattoo” and the atmospheric acoustic ballad “Sunrise”; updated
versions of “Glittering Girl” (now with a stronger rhythm and Roger’s vocal), “Mary
Anne with The Snaky Hand” (now acoustically laid-back) and “Rael” (now more
typically power-pop but lacking the psychedelic majesty of the New York
version).Choosing the original “Rael”
over the new version (although the final minute was edited off due to time limitations of the LP), several more
jingles were cut—"Jaguar", “Premiere Drums”, “Rotosound String”, “John Mason Cars”, “Bag
O’ Nails”, “Charles Atlas” and “Track Records”—and Sell Out was completed.Released in December, it was a critical and commercial
success, being one of the most obvious and intentional rock concept albums, one which
pushed into the borders of pop-art.But
is there a way we can hear the original commercial-free version?

For this reconstruction of Who’s Lily we will (mostly) stick
to the batch of songs prepared up until the end of the American tour, as that
seems to be the point where Who’s Lily became Sell Out.We will also exclusively keep the album in
mono for two reasons: 1) a stereo “Pictures of Lily” does not exist and 2)
early The Who simply sounds better in mono!Side A of my reconstruction begins with “Armenia City in The Sky”, taken
from the 2014 HD Tracks remaster of Sell Out, the most pristine source of its original
mono mix.Following is the original US
single mono mix of “Mary Anne with The Shaky Hand”, a bonus track from the aforementioned
HDTracks remaster.The pseudo-title-track follows,
“Pictures of Lily” taken from its currently best source, The Who Hits 50.In a nod to the band’s brief initial concept
of an instrumental EP, I have included a mono fold of “In The Hall of the
Mountain King” from the 2006 Sell Out Deluxe; although admittedly this track probably
would not have been featured on Who’s Lily, it serves as an interesting
diversion and fits the psychedelic theme of the album.Following is “Our Love Was”, using the much
cleaner-sounding alternate mono mix found on the 2009 Sell Out remaster, and
closing with the song that is essential to be heard in mono: “I Can See For
Miles” from the 2014 HDTracks remaster but with the first few bars from the early mono
mix (from the 2009 Sell Out) edited in to create a clean introduction.

Side B starts appropriately with the 2014 mono remaster of “I
Can’t Reach You”, but next I admit to making a grave anachronistic error:I used three of the tracks recorded
in October, when the album was undoubtedly Sell Out and would not have been on
Who’s Lily.But in an effort to 1) not let this reconstruction overlap with my previous reconstruction of Who’s For
Tennis and 2) make this reconstruction a better album and fuller listening
experience, I chose to include them (please forgive me!).“Silas Stingy” from the 2014 HDTracks mono remaster
is next, followed by the exquisite October remake of “Glittering Girl”, here a
mono fold of the stereo mix from the 2009 Sell Out.A personal favorite, I don’t think I could
have done away with “Tattoo”, here taken from the 2014 HDTracks mono
remaster.The droning psyche-rock of “Relax”
follows, also taken from the 2014 mono remaster, with the album concluding with
the cleaner-sounding early mono mix of “Rael” found on the 2009
remaster, with its actual part 2 tagged onto the end as the song was meant to
be heard in its full six-and-a-half minute glory.Who's Lily's final touch is the psychedelic cover art by
Mark Heggen, taken from the poster included with the original copies of Sell
Out--truly a picture of Lily!

157 comments:

Thanks always for the extreme effort it takes to keep up with your work. In a new age of copyright, surely your endeavours will be enshrined alongside the bitterly contested versions of all these albums we care so much about. In a better world, we could all listen to these songs without wondering what kind of clout these very young dreamers could have held in their day if they weren't inventing it all with such shortsighted financial constrictions. Imagine how unlimited magnetic tape could affect studio time restrictions for the minor leaguers and how lucky we are to have the music we love, while dreaming for more. I can't complain one bit for your stimulating versions, my own faves come mostly from what I first heard, no matter how badly or scratchy they sound, our life changing old records are a part of who we are, always. Thanks

I haven't seen it. Only the 10-minute demo of "Rael", and then another song from the opera called "That Motherland Feeling". The lyrics for a third song called "Party Piece" were printed in a magazine in 1968.

Funnily enough, just this week I've been working on an extended version of 'Rael' myself.

Using various components like Pete's demo, the 'remake' version from the deluxe edition, 'Sparks' and 'Underture' from 'Tommy', 'Rael Naive', etc, I've put together a first attempt which clocks in at over 20 minutes, but probably needs a bit of tightening up.

I have to admit that it probably bears little resemblance to Pete's original vision for the piece but is an avenue worth exploring IMHO.

I didn't use 'That Motherland Feeling' as part of the piece, but that's going to be the last track one side one of a 'what if' album I'm working on (with the long 'Rael' taking up all of side two, natch).

You are literally the man. You always do an amazing job and your releases are always amazing quality. Its awesome to download the album and then read your detailed background while listening. Cheers, mate! Keep up the amazing work! Would you be interested in doing a KISS release? After KISS Alive II was released in 1977, no new KISS album followed in 1978. With the band fracturing during the making of the ill-advised "KISS Meet's The Phantom", it was decided that in an effort to keep the group together, each member would record his own solo album. There is much debate over what would have been on the 1978 album that never happened and I would love to see what you could come up with. I'm sure it'd be excellent.

Perfect. Fantastic reconstruction. I've been waiting for this one. The re-imagining of the next-to-original Rael, a particular favorite. I concur with Mr. Heggen, it'd be quite rewarding to hear the original 30-minute version.

Wasn't "Do the Strip" done for this LP? The only version my uncle has is a 70s boot that is the most atrocious thing I ever want to hear. If it had been a Carnaby St dance craze I would've put on me Go-Go boots and danced in a birdcage for Jimi!

Gotta say, editing the Fillmore East boot down to a single LP seems like a waste of effort to me. It's essential material throughout, so why cut it down?

There is one lost Who 'live' album worth compiling though, which is the material from the 1969 US tour that was compiled to acetate at IBC in January 1970. This was subsequently rejected in favour of the Leeds recording of course.

Judging from the content of the acetates, the tracklisting they were looking at was as follows:

As "Don't Burst My Bubble" fades out, the environmental noise from "The Universal" fades in, allowing the song to pick up where the previous one leaves off. As the last note finishes decaying, the piano kicks off "Every Little Bit Hurts". "Collibosher" comes and goes with no overlap, just timed to flow. Before "Call It Something Nice" finishes fading out, the drums segue into "War of the Worlds" to finish the side."The Autumn Stone" opens the second side, with "Wide-Eyed Girl on the Wall" starting up as the final harmonica note dies down. As the song begins to fade out, it segues directly into "Red Balloon" "Wham Bam Thank You Mam"'s final drum hit coincides with "Donkey Rides, A Penny, A Glass"'s first downbeat.

Dear hey-past-let's-go,I would like to listen to the Pictures of Lily (I'm really shocked that it could be understood as an allusion to the sin you mentionned, good advices from beloved father during our teen age shouldn't be mocked !) Bowie cover with the "Anyway, Anyhow, Anywhere" pin-ups sound.Ha ha ! I think it is impossible, instruments can define their time area.Reading your notes, it's interresting to think how tours could have ended up albums the way they were previously figured.Not like the Zappa's fall who ended the 1971 tour and turned the artist into the jazz world for a while, but without any event, and with the flow of music styles crossing themselves.I liked the idea of the 45 rpm opera that Townshend could have done. They played it that way live (well, let's say the 12" maxi-single way). One could think that Quadrophenia will probably be better that way.The Zappa's album Apostrophy was reduced to a few minutes mix version by a radio guy who played it and it influenced the Mothers when they played it live.I wonder how The Wall could be that way, like a Residents music burrial in the Commercial album. The cover is nice too, but I will never see the in-a-gadda-da-vida lp the same way.

I can't wait for the next one. I'd like to see a WHO album that never was, of the late 71-72 tracks as a WHOs Next follow up. & another using all 1965 Townshend originals, to pair with your outstanding covers R&B alternate first album. Maybe a redo my n Quick One using all the non LP singles

"“Mary Anne with The Snaky Hand” (now acoustically laid-back)"Hahahaha, "Snaky?" One of the best typos I've seen in a while. Thanks. Also, thank you very much for the music. A favorite era of theirs for me. Truly appreciated.

Well done! I guess many of us have created our own versions of 'Sell Out', even adding 'Lily', but this is definitely going one better. It sounds great. And the poster... I'd forgotten about that: just seeing it again reminded me of all the Who concerts I attended. Thank you very much.

I love your WHO reconstructions Sonic man.I kind of wish you make one that would give us an extra WHO album from non album tracks so we would have additional album. All the 68 tracks for example were never on a studio album. There was no 1968 studio album. But they cut enough songs for one. When you make Long Live Rock,why raid actual songs from Quadrophenia. Why not make an album out of Pure & Easy, Join Together Relay there's plenty of late 71-72 tracks that were never used on a studio album.

OK I'm gonna give you an idea, please somebody do this. Turn John & Yoko Sometime in New York City album, into a lost John Lennon album, get rid of as much Yoko as possible. Lennon does 3 songs plus the non album single Happy Xmas. 2 outtakes God Save Oz & Do The Oz. Plus the Power To The People single, that's 7. Maybe you have to use 1 or 2 John& Yoko duets. On luck of the Irish she can be edited out.

How about reworking Endless Wire & getting the 2 non album singles on there. Real Good Looking Boy & Old Red Wine. Plus the new song Be Lucky. Daltrey has a new version of Let My Love Open the door, that isfab, sounds like a new WHO track. Maybe it is,maybe Townshend is on it

Thanks again for your work, great sounds artwork, great alternate albums

I love your WHO reconstructions Sonic man.I kind of wish you make one that would give us an extra WHO album from non album tracks so we would have additional album. All the 68 tracks for example were never on a studio album. There was no 1968 studio album. But they cut enough songs for one. When you make Long Live Rock,why raid actual songs from Quadrophenia. Why not make an album out of Pure & Easy, Join Together Relay there's plenty of late 71-72 tracks that were never used on a studio album.

OK I'm gonna give you an idea, please somebody do this. Turn John & Yoko Sometime in New York City album, into a lost John Lennon album, get rid of as much Yoko as possible. Lennon does 3 songs plus the non album single Happy Xmas. 2 outtakes God Save Oz & Do The Oz. Plus the Power To The People single, that's 7. Maybe you have to use 1 or 2 John& Yoko duets. On luck of the Irish she can be edited out.

How about reworking Endless Wire & getting the 2 non album singles on there. Real Good Looking Boy & Old Red Wine. Plus the new song Be Lucky. Daltrey has a new version of Let My Love Open the door, that isfab, sounds like a new WHO track. Maybe it is,maybe Townshend is on it

Thanks again for your work, great sounds artwork, great alternate albums

How about this:Side A1. Woman Is The N*gger of The World2. God Save Oz3. Attica State4. Angela5. New York CitySide B1. Sunday Bloody Sunday2. The Luck of The Irish3. John Sinclair4. Do The Oz5. Happy Xmas (War Is Over)that's basically it

Yes he did but half the songs were unreleased songs from 67 not the 10-12 68 tracks, which never appeared on any studio album. I guess what I'm saying is this

In 1965-68 there is enough recorded for 7 albums 2 each for 65-67, & 1 for 68. There is just about enough for a 1970 album, & there is enough for a 1972 album using nothing from Who's Next or Quadrophenia. For example

1972 album1 Join Together2 Relay3 Let's See Action4 Time Is Passing5 Pure & Easy6 Put The Money Down7 When I Was A Boy8 Too Much Of Anything9 Long Live Rock

Yes he did but half the songs were unreleased songs from 67 not the 10-12 68 tracks, which never appeared on any studio album. I guess what I'm saying is this

In 1965-68 there is enough recorded for 7 albums 2 each for 65-67, & 1 for 68. There is just about enough for a 1970 album, & there is enough for a 1972 album using nothing from Who's Next or Quadrophenia. For example

1972 album1 Join Together2 Relay3 Let's See Action4 Time Is Passing5 Pure & Easy6 Put The Money Down7 When I Was A Boy8 Too Much Of Anything9 Long Live Rock

First off thank you so much for your hard work! It has introduced me to a lot of history I didnt know about some of my favourite records! I know that there are many great requests in the comments for all of these but I have yet to see one for the sadly doomed Badfinger album "Headfirst". Although maybe thats a good thing, as it wouldnt be easy to do. Anyway I would really love a badfinger reconstruction!

If one is to believe the stories, the tunes targeted for that release have never seen the light of day. That album is slated to be released on "Archives Vol. 2", if Neil ever gets around to it, along with Chrome Dreams and one other I forget the title of.

I'm a huge fan of this site and a majority of soniclovenoize's reconstructions... this is the sorta shit I do myself when I get home from work, roll a joint, pour myself a drink, and arrange playlists on my iTunes.

As a fanatical Who fan from childhood, I must say that my favorites would be...Who's For Tennis?, Lifehouse (I'm looking forward to the eventual upgrade as mentioned in the comments somewhere on the site), and Who's Lily.

Soniclovenoize's interpretation of "Who's Lily" is good and I appreciate the mono setting but the sequence didn't really jive with me and I wanted to have a few more tunes from the '67 period. I have previously reconstructed a 1967 Who release and I encourage you to add the additional tunes in the following sequence in combination with soniclovenoize's reconstruction and take a listen to the definitive Lily ...

1) Armenia City In The Sky2) Mary Anne With The Shaky Hands3) Someone's Coming4) Pictures Of Lily5) Early Morning Cold Taxi6) In The Hall Of The Mountain King7) Silas Stingy8) Tattoo9) Glittering Girl10) Girl's Eyes11) Our Love Was12) I Can See For Miles13) I Can't Reach You14) Relax15) Rael (1 and 2)

Keep up the great work, Soniclovenoize! I look forward to your posts more than official releases! Thanks from all the cats!

Do you post on The Townhall? A few years back I promised I would make a live compilation of the best versions of every song they've played live. I'll have to actually do that sometime, thanks for reminding me. It wouldn't be featured here on my blog, but I'd post it on the Townhall, possibly the Favebook E6 Enthusiasts Group.

Hey sonic! That latest Who mix is really nice (though I prefer just a bit Sell Out for the fake ads). I just wanted to share this:

The Who's shelved album from 1972. I used the acetate order from Pete Townshend's demos but switched the Quadrophenia tracks with some b-sides and outtakes from the 1970-72 era. This is not what the original 1972 concept was but instead something akind to Who's Next (unconnected songs). Kudos to Jon Hunt for the front cover art!

I've been toying with an idea where Syd Barrett leaves Pink Floyd in the middle of the Piper at the Gates of Dawn sessions - for self-preservation's sake, quits drugs and moves back to Cambridge to resume his painting career. Fast-forward a year, and inspired by hearing the first Tyrannosaurus Rex album, he makes an approach to Marc Bolan and Steve Took to join their band.

Basically, combining the best of Barrett's solo albums with Tyrannosaurus Rex/T-Rex circa 1968-1970 (as they started moving away from folk, into rock).

What it comes to Oasis album... Noel had an AMA on Reddit last year and he was asked which songs would have been on the follow-up of DOYS. This is what he replied:

"Okay. It would've been half of my first solo record, so "Record Machine" would've probably been on it... "Stop the Clocks" would've probably been on it, and "Dream On" and maybe "Stranded on the Wrong Beach" and then the rest of the guys would've put on some of their own songs."

Noel actually had started demoing the new songs at the end of the DOYS recording sessions. I can't find the interview at this very moment but he mentioned playing toy drums in those sessions... those songs can be found on Faster than the Speed of Magic demo CD. IIRC the songs were pretty much those Noel mentioned. The Good Rebel and Freaky Teeth are leftovers from Heathen Chemistry days... Everybody's on the Run and If I had a Gun were written during the DOYS tour so they are potential songs for the album. After all NG had them on his debut. What A Life! was described by Noel as a song that Oasis couldn't have ever put out so that's what we can quite easily leave out. Come On Outside and Record Machine had been planned to be released on DOYS (they even had the choir recorded on them!) but didn't end up on the album. It's possible that COO would have ended up on the DOYS' follower.

From Beady Eye's debut much of the stuff was written during the Oasis days. The Roller was first demoed in the Heathen Chemistry sessions and before DOYS sessions began Andy had given Noel a tape of his songs including Millionaire, Four Letter Word and The Beat Goes on IIRC... and Noel eventually chose Nature of Reality, which Andy hadn't wanted originally to appear on the album! Gem's Standing on the Edge of the Noise was very likely to have been around during the DOYS sessions as the rehearsal gig that was broadcast before the start of the tour was given the song's name. From Liam's efforts I'd imagine For Anyone and Beatles & Stones being potential album tracks as they remind Liam's earlier contributions for Oasis (Songbird and Ain't Got Nothing, anyone?). Wigwam and The Morning Son had also been around for some years before Different Gear, Still Speeding. Man of Misery was a demo used for Pretty Green commercial and re-recorded for Beady Eye B-side but I highly doubt Noel would've allowed it to be anywhere near the album given his not-too-good feelings on Pretty Green in general. Everyone's Beady Eye favourites World Outside My Room and In a Bubble with a Bullet were not written before the guys hit the road so they're out I'm afraid.

But personally it's not the tracklisting that's the main problem, but the fact that the two debut albums were produced very differently. When doing the reconstruction one can really hear that it's not a coherent whole but a playlist of songs from different sessions and albums. I think that Noel would've wanted the band to stick out with Dave Sardy for the DOYS follow-up and he surely would have had his hands on the tracklisting, too. But if you take a look on the HC, DBTT and DOYS tracklistings you'll notice that they follow the same pattern: 11 tracks, 6 of Noel's (5 on DBTT), 3 Liam's, 1 from both Andy & Gem (2 from Andy on DBTT).

So you do the math from all of the above. I'd go for something like this (from the top of my head):

Everybody's on the RunFour Letter WordDream OnFor AnyoneThe RollerCome on OutsideBeatles & StonesRecord MachineStranded on the Wrong BeachStop the ClocksWigwam

Been a lurker on the E6 townhall and this site for a while. Personally, I got really into bootlegs/demos from all E6 bands, beach boys, Weezer, the Who, etc. One thing that is kind of happening in real time (that may or may not be for the audience of this site) is the scrapped album So Help Me God from Kanye West. Lyrical content aside, the production on the demo's would be enough of a justification of putting together a scrapped album version.

Btw, if you do end up doing that OTC EP let me know... wasn't there supposed to be a new OTC album in the works right before Bill Doss died? Any tracks leak from that?

Yep, the album was to be called The Same Place, a double-album like the other two. It's lacking "finishing touches" and a final track sequence, but everything else is done (including all of Bill's vocals before he passed away). After he died, the band didn't have the heart to go back and finish it, so they focused on Circulatory System instead and put out Mosaics Within Mosaics (a GREAT album, if you haven't heard it!).

The only song that's leaked is the title track, in which John played it on a podcast. I uploaded it on youtube. (not to be confused with the old Circulatory System outtake of the same name, which OTC used as the basis for the new version). They also were playing a second new song live on what became their final tour, "The Spinning Continuous" (which was also an old Circulatory System song).

John has mentioned some of the songs on the new album are: The Spinning Continuous, The Same Place, Begin Now, Impressions Through The Ring, Path of the Parallels, Come Away (all Will songs/old Circulatory System songs that became OTC songs for the album); and Advice From The Oceans, Same Old Place, Fossil Faun, Garden of Light, Halfway Down, Spaceship Universe (all Bill Songs).

That's all I know! Maybe someday we will hear it! Judging by the title track that was leaked, it'll be fantastic!

Ever heard of The Rockfield Sessions by The Flamin' Groovies? It would have been an album between Teenage Head and Shake Some Action. A different mix of the title track and "You Tore Me Down" made it onto the album but the rest were scrapped. There's only 7 tracks I'm aware of but there may be more out there. I know you have your ways.

You could also do a "second" Dave Grohl solo album a la "Late!" with all the songs written from 1990 - 1994 before the dissolution of Nirvana/ Start of Foo Fighters. What that means is that no songs that are known to have been written post-nirvana (This Is A Call, Oh George, etc..) are not included.

I also added 2 tracks onto the first Late! album (that were recently unearthed/released in better form online) - here is that track list (again in Chronological recording order) :

An alternate Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars would be interesting. He had originally intended to include "Amsterdam" by Jacques Brel, "Round and Round" by Chuck Berry, and some originals "Velvet Goldmine", a re-recording of "Holy, Holy" and "Sweet Head". During the sessions there were also recordings of "Jean Genie" and "John, I'm Only Dancing". Of course the album would've suffered from the lack of "Suffragette City", "Starman", "It Ain't Easy" and "Rock 'n' Roll Suicide", but it'd be an interesting alternate take on the masterpiece.

I added the Arnold Corns' versions of "Hang Onto Yourself" and "Moonage Daydream" on The Man Who Sold The World and Hunky Dory, respectively. Also added "It Ain't Easy" to HD as it was recorded for that album, anyway. Aladdin Sane is practically Ziggy Part II so adding the leftover tracks would not sound out of place.

I heard mentioned that there was a CSN&Y album in the pipeline in the 1970's which was never released, any chance you have reconstructed that as well?Love the reconstructed Neil Young Chrome Dreams set, that would have been so much better than American Stars n Bars.

Hey there folks. The blog isn't dead. I've just been very busy in my own musical projects, recording an album and then being asked to play in a new band who is gearing up to tour. As stated before, I have a year's worth of reconstructions ready to go, it's just a matter of sitting down and writing the essays, which now have become sort of a chore since the actual audio work was done months ago (and in some cases last year). But honestly maybe I needed a break, sometimes it seems more like a chore instead of something I originally started doing for fun.

Alright! Good to know you're alive, since I don't know that we could send someone to check on you. Best of luck with the music! I, myself, am trying to put together a solo album and a blues band. I know it's tough.

Don't take too much offense, Sonic. If these other folk are anything like me, they look forward to your posts like they look forward to a new album by their favorite artist. In my case, and probably quite a few of the others, most of our favorite artists are either dead or dying and these alternate views are a high point of the month for us who live for music. That being said, how's about "Rafferty's Folly" by Richard & Linda Thompson, the alternate Shoot Out The Lights. Track listing, as I've read, goes like:

The original is out there kicking around : I've seen it on a few different sites. I had a copy that I've since misplaced : it's not very good, to be honest, and I love Richard Thompson. Horrid production, to be sure.

Second that very much! My copy of Folly is very bad boot and I'm sure there are cleaner versions around. Linda often said she rather liked the (non) album so this should be fairly satisfying as Richard hated it?

The Velvet Underground's White Light/White Heat album would've been far better if 'Guess I'm Falling in Love' was in the tracklist instead of 'The Gift' - a shame the studio cut outtake was only a backing track as they played it live with vocals.

Hi, SLN. Take your time and nvm the impatient kind.I made a Bob Dylan Basement collection, that I wanted to share with your. Bob Dylan - In The Big Pink. I have tried to "remaster", edit rather, the songs and put together a gro9ve ty album.

Like everyone else who visits this blog, I'm eagerly awaiting the next post from Sonic. To pass the time I'm been reading the comments from the past two years posts, and see that there are a lot of requests for possible reconstructions. As I too have way too much time on my hands I decided to give some of them a go myself, and so I've reconstructed the following: The Hollies lost 1968 album with Graham Nash, The Small Faces '1862', The Grateful Dead 'Days Between', Blind Faith's second album, with judicial edits of the long jam tracks, Neil Young & Crazy Horse 'Oh, Lonesome Me', The Smashing Pumpkins 'Moon' demo, and a companion album 'Sun' from the same sessions, The Nazz 'Fungo Bat', and one from the Album Fixer's site of an imagination of what an Eagles album could have sounded like in 1981 if they hadn't split in 1980. I can upload links for all of these for anyone who wants to listen to them, but I want to run it past Sonic first in case any on these are on the 'to do' list, and you'd rather I didn't post them. All albums come with (mostly) exclusive artwork, so if I get the go-ahead from Sonic I'll post some links here later.

My Hollies reconstruction only uses about half of the above tracks, so is quite different, but the crowning glory is a version of 'Marrakesh Express', using The Hollies backing track under Graham Nash's vocal demo that he presented to CSN. It's not my own work, but I'm sure that the person who did it won't mind me sharing as he's posted it on Soundcloud. Brian, I've used your track listing for my reconstruction as I thought that it worked well, and I've edited like you said, with some seguing of some of the tracks. As you said that you didn't know how to upload I though I could do it on your behalf, unless Sonic has this lined up for his next post.

No word from Sonic yet, and as I'm on holiday for a couple of weeks from next week and don't want to keep you all hanging, I thought that I'd post a few of my recontructions that I though Sonic probably wouldn't do, so I wouldn't be stepping on his toes. Starting with The Hollies.The Hollies - Listen To Us (Unreleased 1968)Slightly different track listing to Brian's version, and I got the song titles to use from here http://forums.stevehoffman.tv/threads/hollies-unreleased-rare-recordings-from-late-nash-era-1968.135532/, but can't recall where I got the order from. Added the 'Marrakesh Express' demo to the end. The cover is one of mine.

01 Open Up Your Eyes02 Do The Best You Can03 Relax04 Tomorrow When It Comes05 Man With No Expression06 Like Every Time Before07 The Times They Are A-Changin' (live)08 Wings09 Jennifer Eccles10 A Taste Of Honey (orchestral version)11 Blowing In The Wind12 Listen To Me13 Marrakesh Express (Hollies backing track synced with Nash's demo vocal)

An imagining by The Album Fixer of what the next Eagles album might have sounded like had they not split in 1980. Tracks are from their various solo albums and soundtrack work (a LOT of soundtrack work) that were released in 1981. The Meisner track 'Gotta Get Away' is included as apparently it has Henley and Felder on backing vocals. You can read the full story here:

So you mothers out there... There is a new RADIOHEAD album out. Nice huh?Well I was talking to this one nice guy and he said that The King of Limbs was good, but he was not that happy about it. It felt like something was missing, he said.I was like: "dude! Are we talking about The same album? Cheese, I Take photo now."No! I was talking about this album:

http://www.mediafire.com/?7cu6l9i88t3iqz8

I am ready for that kiss now SLN! Hope you enjoy this album album. Every song is made to fit and I used The King of Limbs Live from The Basement as songlist blueprint. The Butcher became the first song, because Thom didn't see how it could fit into the album.

This one was something of a labour of love, as I've been wanting to hear this for years, but of course Young has the tracks safely locked away, and keeps teasing us with hints of it's inclusion in the Archive series. I found a tentative track listing here:

and he'd even collected together live versions of all these songs so that we could hear them, but the sound quality was very variable (sometimes almost unlistenable), and I felt that he shouldn't include a track from 2008, for instance, as it is much too far from when the original would have been recorded. I therefore decided to try to track down better quality versions which were more period-appropriate, and I managed to find all of them bar two songs. Most of them were live versions, but I've tried to cut out as much audience noise as possible, by starting the track when the music comes in, and fading before the applause if it didn't intrude on the song, so that it flows like the actual album would have done. I'm quite pleased with the result, and even found a proposed official cover for it (not sure if it's legit or not, but I like it).

the song you have down as 'homefires' is 'ride my llama' from rust never sleeps.i'm not sure the album would have started with homegrown - far too rocky and jangly for an opening track on an NY album.the version of 'bad news comes to town' you have is from the '87 bluenotes tour. no way that would be on here with those horns.

I got 'Homefires' from the 'Chromes Dreams' bootleg, and having checked I see that their numbering on the notes missed off track 10, so I was one out from track 11, and included 'Ride My Llama' by mistake!Having reread the notes on 'Chrome Dreams' I've decided to include their version of 'Homegrown', as although it is essentially the same as the eventually released take, the guitars are slightly different, and so it warrants inclusion. I tried to find a different version of 'Bad News' but the horns one is the only one out there, so although it doesn't really fit, I thought the song was a good one and so had to include it. Thinking about it now it does intrude a bit, so I've decided to remove it, and by using the shorter version of 'Homegrown' I'm left with a nice 45 minute album, with only 'Little Wing' sounding out of place. Speaking of which, listening to it again, I wasn't happy with the fade at the end, so have redone that, and also managed to mostly get rid of that annoying glitch at the beginning. Jake made a good point about starting the album with a rocker, so I've also rejigged the running order, to space out the rock and acoustic tracks. So even if you've downloaded this already then give the new version a try and see it you think it has improved it.

Like the Neil Young album above, the is collection of live versions of the songs that the band were working on just before Jerry Garcia died in 1995. Therefore, none of these songs have Garcia on them, but the are still identifiable as the Dead. This is a mixture of two bootlegs that I found online, with the best tracks taken from each. I edited them to flow together, with minimal audience noise where possible.

01 Liberty02 Wave To The Wind03 Corrina04 Lazy River Road05 Eternity06 So Many Roads07 Way To Go Home08 Days Between09 Easy Answers10 Childhood's End11 If The Shoe Fits

This collection is based on sydfloyd's comments here http://albumsthatneverwere.blogspot.co.uk/2014/10/the-clash-rat-patrol-from-fort-bragg.html, where he said that he had constructed an album made up of tracks from various solo releases from 1975/76. Being a massive Yes fan, I just had to make my own version, so here it is. I've edited it exactly as sydfloyd said, and have even made the covers that he suggested, of which I'm particularly pleased at how it turned out.

I looked at this idea a while back and decided on a single disc album and this is what I came up with:1. Ocean Song - Anderson2. Meeting (Garden of Geda) / Sound Out The Galleon - Anderson3. One Way Rag – White4. Ram - Howe5. Hold Our Your Hand – Squire

1. Beginnings – Howe2. You by My Side – Squire3. Song of Innocence – White4. Cachaça (Baião) – Moraz5. Break Away from It All – Howe

This is another of sydfloyd's ideas of what Neil Young & Crazy Horse's second album might have sounded like is if had come out in 1970. It's a nice collection of Young and Crazy Horse tracks which works pretty well.

01 Winterlong02 Look At All The Things03 Everybody's Alone04 Downtown05 Wonderin'06 It Might Have Been07 Oh, Lonesome Me08 I Don't Want To Talk About It09 When You Dance, I Can Really Love10 I Believe In You11 Dance Dance Dance12 Birds

With the recent release of the remastered sole album by the band, with a second CD of bonus tracks, I thought I'd piece together what a second album by the band could have sounded like. The problem was that there were only three vocal tracks, one proper instrumental, and five really lengthy jam sessions. After listening to the jams all the way through I thought that they were pretty well recorded, but ultimately they did go on a bit, and some of it was very repetitive, so I decided to see if I could edit them each down to a concise five to six minute instrumental track, and once I'd done that and jigged them into a reasonable running order I was left with a nice little 46 minute album.

There's still a lot of instrumental music on here, and you might not agree with the edits, but you can judge for yourself as I'm also posting the complete versions of these five jams.

http://www5.zippyshare.com/v/krb2699Y/file.html

The Jams

http://www30.zippyshare.com/v/fUN5jKLn/file.html

Well, that's your lot for now, and hope you enjoy these efforts of mine. I've now trawled through all of the comments of this blog and these are results of requests that sounded interesting and that I thought that I could pull off. The last couple that I did were the double album version of 'Abacab' by Genesis, and the unreleased 4th album by The Stooges, so they might come later, and I still have '1862', Fungo Bat', 'Stampede', and 'Four More Respected Gentlemen' if Sonic doesn't mind me posting them.

One final post. I can't remember if it was someone on this blog that was talking about the legendary 20 minute version of The Beatles' Helter Skelter, and we know pretty much for certain that it doesn't exist, but some years ago I did stumble on this bootleg of 18 different versions of it. They vary from short extracts to almost full recordings, and although they are only in 128 I thought some of you might be interested.

A 2nd studio LP from The Yardbirds is a good project. In the US they issued "Having a Rave Up with The Yardbirds," but only the first side was made up of studio tracks with new guitarist Jeff Beck. Side two consisted of live tracks with Eric Clapton on guitar from the previous year. A better track list (recorded between April and Sept '65) I think would have been:

Side A - 18:281. You’re a Better Man Than I2. Evil Hearted You3. I’m a Man4. Still I’m Sad5. My Girl Sloopy6. Heart Full of Soul

Side B - 19:371. Shapes of Things2. I Ain’t Done Wrong3. Steeled Blues4. I’m Not Talking5. New York City Blues6. Train Kept a-Rollin’

Love The Yardbirds, so I'm taking up the challenge to put together a follow-up to the 'Roger The Engineer' album, which would have cemented their reputation as a top psychedelic band, rather than what happened when the more commercial stuff on 'Little Games' came out. Most of these songs were recorded between 'Roger' and 'Games', but only a few of them came out at the time as singles or B-sides. I've adapted the 'Cumular Limit' sleeve as I've always liked it, and I've used sydfloyd's title, but made it 'Yardbirds-eye...' as I think that what the original box set was trying to get at was a 'birds-eye view'.

I might be getting a bit too ambitious here, but a couple of the tracks that I was going to include turned out to be not that great, so to fill the gap I've joined 'Someone To Love' parts 1 and 2 together to make a six minute version. You'll probably spot the join, (as I'm only working with free audio editing software!) but it sort of works.

http://www13.zippyshare.com/v/5upv8BEM/file.html

and if you want to hear the depths that the band sank to while recording 'Little Games' then listen to this

The title Gomelsky came up with for the bands proposed second album was indeed 'A Yardbirds' Eye View of Beat'. Yes, it is a pun on 'birds-eye view', but doesn't need to be written that way for it to work. This title was, of course, abandoned when they parted company with Gomelsky and went off to record the album known as 'Roger the Engineer'.

My other Yardbirds project was a final album, for which I used the name 'Cumular Limit' as I always really liked that title:

Side Two:Goodnight Sweet JosephineMost Likely You’ll Go Your WaySpanish BloodShining Where the Sun Has BeenKnowing That I’m Losing YouThink About It

This one is probably my favourite Yardbirds album. Incidentally, those who feel the 'Little Games' album is weak should listen to the 1992 double CD edition 'Little Games Sessions & More', which shows off the material in a far better light.

Including the Together and Renaissance songs is an interesting take. Certainly helps fill album. I tried to keep it all Yardbirds with my version of a '68 album:Side A1. Think About It 2. Taking a Hold of Me 3. Avron Knows 4. Spanish Blood 5. Dazed and Confused

Hi sydfloyd. Nice selection there for a final album, and as I have the 'Cumular Limit' and 'Little Games' CDs then 'tis but the work of am moment to piece it together. I do agree that in hindsight 'Little Games' isn't as bad as it was made out at the time, but you have to admit that there is more pop on there than rock, and I'd love to see you try to defend 'I Remember The Night'!

Track listing as above. I've used the phased US single version of 'Goodnight Sweet Josephine' as people might not have heard that one, and tidied up some of the studio chatter.

I've called it 'Cumular Limit', but as I've already used the actual 'Cumular Limit' cover for my previous post I've made a new one. I know Beck's on there, but it's a clever idea, so I went with it.

Cool - which version of 'Dazed & Confused' did you use? And what source did you get 'Knowing That I'm Losing You' from? I think I've only got a lossy copy of the latter.

I wouldn't try to defend 'I Remember the Night' except to say that they had the sense not to include it on the album! It's an obvious attempt at a Small Faces-style Cockney knees-up, but it doesn't have much charm.

As for the 'Little Games' sessions as a whole, being a fan of 60's pop probably helps, but there is plenty of nifty Page guitar work in there too.

When I first heard 'I Remember The Night' I did think that they might be going for a 'Lazy Sunday' vibe, but while the SF managed to garner a hit single, the Yardbirds locked theirs away until it was excavated for the LG expanded edition (probably rightly so). I took 'Dazed And Confused' from the 'Cumular Limit' CD, and cut off all the backwards freakout stuff that was on the end as a secret bonus track, and the only take of 'Knowing That I'm Losing You' that I could find came as a free download from here

https://mp3-juices.com/ddl/4870212/im-losing-you.html

and as I didn't think I was going to find a better version I used that.

I have one for that, but I can't finish it until I get the new Roger the Engineer release, since I used the Keith Relf solo recordings in place of the extremely unfinished tracks, like "You Stole My Love". I try to keep the actual albums intact, if possible, so I left Little Games alone. As much as I like US version of "Goodnight Sweet Josephine", the only Yardbirds on the recording are Page and Relf, so I don't think it can go on the album. I keep it as a "bonus track".